Dear Dr. Dietrich:
I am a a 120 lb female with subtype 2. I have been undetectable since 12 weeks and most likely before as ALTs dropped from 300 to 5 in 2 weeks. I've been having trouble with anemia dispite procrit and have been on 600 mg for most of my 30 weeks so far. Twice I was take off completely for 2 weeks (still took peg-intron. My doctor thinks it may be better to do 72 weeks since I've been on low ribavirin. This stuff is killing me. I have every side effect and have to work 2 jobs to try and pay for it. Is there any evidence that those extra 24 weeks would really help keep my response sustained?????????

Response from Dr. Dieterich

If you are indeed taking the ribavirin, you can take more procrit 60,000 units or 80,000 and make sure that you have enough iron. If you are genotype 2 then 24 weeks could be enough. I think 72 weeks for genotype 2 may be too long. Good luck! DTD

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